Streamline Your Forms: The Power of Tabs and Tables over Underscores
In the world of technical writing, details matter. The way you present information can make a significant difference in its readability and overall professional appearance. One such detail that often goes unnoticed is how we structure forms with lines. These may be used for signature blocks, electronic entries, or hard copy hand-written entries. If you've been hitting the underscore button until you reach the end of the page, it's time for a change.
The Hidden Pitfalls of the Underscore Key
Many writers fall into the habit of using the underscore key to create lines in their documents. While it might seem like a quick and easy solution, it can create a number of problems that may not be immediately apparent.
Firstly, using the underscore key means that your line ends rarely line up at the edge of the page. This can lead to an inconsistent and unprofessional appearance.
Can you tell the difference between the alignment of these three lines?
Let’s take a closer look against the grid:
The first row, while pretty close in some areas, is not perfectly aligned:
The middle sample is lined up perfectly on each right line end. The 3rd sample is lined up perfectly both right and left sides of the lines.
The 2nd example was created using right and left aligned tabs with a leader.
There is a lot of information on Microsoft sites, but at a high level, you can creating and modifying tabs in Microsoft Word as follows:
Setting a Tab Stop: Click on the location on the ruler where you want to set the tab stop. If the ruler is not visible, go to the 'View' tab and check the box for 'Ruler'.
Changing Tab Stop: To change the position of a tab stop, click and drag it to the desired position on the ruler.
Removing a Tab Stop: To remove a tab stop, click and drag it off the ruler.
Setting Precise Tab Stops: For more precise control over tab stops, go to the 'Paragraph' settings, click on 'Tabs', and set the exact positions you want.
These are the settings used in my example #2 above:
The result lines up the text and automatically generates a line up to the right aligned tabs as follows:
The 3rd sample was created using a table. The borders are removed except for the bottom border on the cells where you want the lines to show up. The cell margins were also adjusted to 0” on the left to allow the left most text to line up with the page margin.
Why Underscores Make Editing a Chore
Let’s see what happens when I start typing into the word document for each of these examples:
The underscore sample has just gotten very ugly. I now need to go back and delete some underscore characters to keep my text on the original line. Even if not filling out the form electronically, using the underscore key means that if you need to change something later (like margins or line length), you'll have to manually backspace or add more underscores. This can be time-consuming and, quite frankly, a bit frustrating.
On the other hand, we can see that both the tabs and table formats keep things clean, but do present with some stylistic differences that may impact the author’s choice of one over the other.
Note: To use forms like this electronically, best practice is to use form fields in the Developer tab, but we will save that discussion for another day.
The Power of Tabs and Tables
So, what have we learned?
By understanding how to create and modify tabs and tables, you can ensure your documents are clean, consistent, and easy to edit. It's a small investment of time that can save you a lot of frustration in the long run.
